The Supreme Court has been the focus of a lot of attention lately. Some say something sinister is going on at the High Court.
And now Justice Brett Kavanaugh has made shocking comments about the 8 other Justices.
The impact of Donald Trump’s three nominations for the U.S. Supreme Court bench have been felt in a big way over the past two years.
Last year Roe v. Wade was effectively overturned with the Dobbs decision, led by the conservatives on the bench. Multiple anti-Second Amendment laws were struck down in that judicial season as well.
Most recently we’ve seen Affirmative Action largely kicked to the curb by the Supreme Court as well as religious liberty upheld in a Christian website designer’s case to exercise their right to deny someone service based on religious values.
Many of these rulings have made the radical Left furious as all get out. They are even trying to claim that there’s some sort of partisan pact that’s going on behind closed doors.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh wants to dispel those rumors and unfounded opinions.
Even though conservatives ended affirmative action in admissions to colleges and knocked down President Joe Biden’s student loan debt relief program, Justice Brett Kavanaugh highlighted the mixed U.S. Supreme Court decisions this term on Thursday to dismiss notions that it is partisan.
“The court is an institution of law. It’s an institution of law not of politics, not of partisanship,” Kavanaugh said at an event in the state of Minnesota.
Kavanaugh is one of three justices selected by President Trump who have altered the makeup of the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh joined the conservative majorities in rulings on affirmative action and student loans and last summer’s ruling reversing the nationwide right to abortion, but he also joined the bipartisan majorities that supported Black voters in Alabama and upheld a federal law meant to keep Native American children with their families.
The court also backed the Biden administration in a struggle over deportation priorities, and it shocked many by rejecting conservative claims in a North Carolina redistricting case that could have transformed elections across the country.
“We have lived up, in my estimation, to deciding cases based on law and not based on partisan affiliation and partisanship,” Kavanaugh stated. “We don’t caucus in separate rooms. We don’t meet separately. We’re not sitting on different sides of the aisle at an oral argument.” “We work as a group of nine,” Kavanaugh added.
Kavanaugh said he didn’t realize until he joined the court the amount of time the nine justices spent alone with each other.
According to his calculations, they share a meal together roughly sixty-five times a year.
“And the rule at lunch is you can’t talk about work,” he added. “It’s a good rule. It builds relationships and friendships and then when we have tough cases… you have a reservoir of goodwill toward each of the other people.”
In his first term in 2018, Kavanaugh stated leftist Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer greeted him with open arms. He also spoke highly of his cooperation with the court’s two newest justices, Amy Coney Barrett (a conservative) and Ketanji Brown Jackson (a liberal).
Kavanaugh, the justice who has been in the majority in the most cases this term, has remarked that the Supreme Court hears between sixty and seventy cases per term, but that only a select number may garner the majority of media attention. He did, however, note that in addition to the frequent 9-0 rulings, 7-2 and 6-3 rulings are also not uncommon.
He remarked that there were “all kinds of lineups.” For example, Sonia Sotomayor and Kavanaugh might collaborate on the Andy Warhol case but disagree on a matter involving the anti-trust clause. “We’re not going to let our relationship where we’re working together on one suffer just because we disagree on the other. And that’s going on with all nine of us on a daily basis.”
To the public’s dismay, some justices have been plagued by ethical questions, particularly the conservatives Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito and the liberal Sotomayor. Kavanaugh just fleetingly addressed this matter. He mentioned in passing that in May, Chief Justice John Roberts had remarked that the justices were still discussing the matter among themselves.
“I’m not going to add anything to what the chief justice has said on that topic,” Kavanaugh remarked.
At the time, Roberts gave no details, and the Supreme Court has yet to develop a new ethics code.
Kavanaugh has indicated that it is to be expected for people to be upset when the Supreme Court issues controversial rulings. He said that the Supreme Court’s nine justices may best serve the public by maintaining internal cohesion, providing transparent justifications for their opinions, and demonstrating that they tackle complex matters as a united group.
“If you don’t like criticism, you shouldn’t be in this line of work,” he advised. “Because you’re going to get it. And you’re going to get a lot of it.”
Stay tuned to the Federalist Wire for more updates on the U.S. Supreme Court.
